Check out this awesome crossword puzzle submitted by Jen Bonetto! Happy puzzling!
(answers)
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Green Your Leftovers
It’s not always easy to prepare food options that can be enjoyed by both meat-lovers and vegetarians during the holidays! Don’t worry; the Green Observer is here with a delicious stuffing recipe that can be enjoyed by everyone. Here is a vegetarian version that can be squeezed into any table alongside all the other scrumptious food during this holiday season.
Cornbread Stuffing (courtesy of Southern Living)
Ingredients
• 1 cup frozen diced onion, red and green bell peppers, and celery
• 2 small garlic cloves, pressed
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 1 1/2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 2 medium-size sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons melted vegan butter
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage
• 2 teaspoons Creole seasoning, divided
• 2 (14-oz.) cans vegetable broth, divided
• 1 (8-oz.) package cornbread stuffing mix
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten (can be substituted for vegan option)
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans
• Garnish: fresh or dried sage leaves
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Sauté frozen onion mixture and garlic in 1 Tbsp. hot oil in a large, deep skillet over medium-high heat 2 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
2. Stir in squash, next 5 ingredients, 1 tsp. Creole seasoning, and 1/4 cup water. Cover, reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, 15 minutes or until squash and potatoes are tender. Stir in 1 can vegetable broth.
3. Remove from heat; cool 15 minutes. Stir together stuffing mix, egg, and remaining 1 can vegetable broth and 1 tsp. Creole seasoning in a medium bowl. Fold into cooled squash mixture. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
4. Bake, covered with aluminum foil, at 375° for 25 minutes. Uncover and sprinkle with pecans; bake 20 minutes or until dressing is thoroughly heated and pecans are toasted. Let stand 10 minutes before serving. Garnish, if desired.
Enjoy!
Cait Gallagher
Keystone XL is Dead Thanks to Us. Get Involved!
In early November, 12,000 citizens encircled the White House to urge President Obama to not approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Just a few days later, President Obama decided to delay the pipeline decision until after the election. This delay effectively killed the pipeline, thereby demonstrating how much change we can affect as engaged citizens.
Keystone XL is a pipeline proposed by the Canadian company TransCanada that would connect the Alberta tar sands reserve to the Gulf of Mexico, which would open up a huge amount of climate-change causing emissions. It would increase worldwide dependence on oil, and could do serious damage to local Canadian and U.S. environments along the pipeline. TransCanada’s track record on environmental protection is less than reassuring that all precautions would be taken.
President Obama was the only person who could kill the pipeline because it crosses the American- Canadian border. Nevertheless, he was pushing off the decision and the State Department was putting pressure to move forward with the project.
In August, over 1,000 citizens were arrested at the White House in one of the biggest displays of peaceful civil disobedience since the Civil Rights Movement. And in November, what started as hope that 1,000 protestors would show up turned into 12,000 protestors. In the same week, President Obama decided to send the pipeline back to the drawing board, essentially killing the pipeline.
But the story here is not what President Obama did. It is what we did. Look at what we can do together! We can be the change we are waiting for. It is not always easy, but it can be done and must be done.
Believe it or not, we have power. We have influence. When enough people take the time to show that they care, the Powers That Be have to listen. President Obama’s decision shows us what is possible.
More Than a Prairie
Military Axis is an odd name for a prairie restoration site. Once a marching ground for the University’s ROTC programs, the area between BIF, Krannert Art Museum, Huff Hall, and the South Quad bell tower has most recently been downgraded to an overflow parking and BIF construction staging. The Axis was uniquely reclassified as “natural landscaping” in the 2007 revisions to the campus master plan.
If this site is to succeed in its goal of educating the campus community on landscape sustainability and the diverse values of our native prairies, the military axis has to be more than another ecological restoration. The project is lead by Dr. Anton
Endress and a national team of graduate students, and overseen by a committee of staff, administrators, faculty, and students, including myself.
First, and most importantly, this project needs to happen. There is no current project that compares to the impact of a 6-acre site devoted to sustainability in the heart of campus. The only comparable initiative in recent history is the late wind turbine.
It needs funding. I encourage every environmentally concerned student to write a letter to the members of committee, thanking them for their hard work toward sustainable landscaping, and asking that the various segments of the University represented think hard about how to fund this project. Letters can be directed to the Office of Public Engagement, Military Axis Committee.
My fear is moving forward with an ecologically-driven project. The benefits of a prairie as habitat, services, and processes increase with size and hospitability of the ‘matrix’ that surrounds it. The fairly small, cement bordered Military Axis site is an ecologist’s worst nightmare. Any plan for the site should make no illusion: ecological processes here will never approach a natural state.
The nuances of ecological theory will be lost on the average orange-clad freshman, for whom “Keystone” is a beer and not a species (or a pipeline). Where an ecologist sees biodiversity, he’ll see weeds. The goal of education should have him in mind; maybe one day will take a trip to Meadowbrook, Midewin, Barnhart, or other ecologically significant prairie sites. But the heart of campus is not a good place for hard ecology.
What the military axis lacks in ecological integrity, it could make up for in a rich and textured interface with its surrounding human systems.
I believe the site should fuse the values of its neighbors in a simple, meaningful reflection on sustainability. The site will have to be neat. People need a reason to enter: public artwork, sparse tables to enjoy lunch, and winding paths could make this site an oasis within yards of a hundred offices and classrooms.
The planning process should be opened to the public, potential stakeholders identified and included in what would admittedly be a long and probably frustrating process.
Future Illini in the colleges of Business, Education, Law, Planning and Architecture, Fine Arts, and all kinds of coffee drinkers are the audience. Our natural heritage is the subject. And a chunk of rocky, compacted earth is the canvas. The process itself could change how our campus views planning.
The result will be worth the effort. And the wait.
Matt Rundquist
Featured RSO: Engineers Without Borders
Are you interested in becoming involved with an incredible group dedicated to helping others and the environment? Then join Engineers Without Borders! Everyone is welcome to become a member of the UIUC chapter of Engineers Without Borders (EWB), regardless of major or year in school. EWB is “an international nonprofit organization committed to advancing the quality of life in impoverished countries via socioeconomically and ecologically sustainable engineering projects,” according to their mission statement. EWB offers a variety of projects, ranging from converting vegetable oil waste produced by university dining halls into biodiesel for university vehicles, to improving water supply and sanitation in Cameroon and Guatemala.
In a recent interview with Kenny Long, president of EWB, Long reflected on his trips to Cameroon, where EWB constructed a water catchment and distribution system in the rural village of Ntisaw. His experience in Ntisaw revealed his passion for helping others, experiencing and understanding new cultures, and gaining knowledge and skills that will help him in school and the future. Long’s discussion of Cameroon exhibits the variety of experiences and benefits that EWB has to offer.
In case you were wondering, EWB likes to take a break every once in a while. The group hosts events such as their annual 5K Run for Water, attract influential guest speakers, meet up for happy hours, and other various social activities.
Engineers Without Borders is an amazing opportunity to become involved both on and off campus, improve the lives of others, help the environment, meet new people, and have a great time! Visit their website for more information, and stop by their weekly Wednesday meetings to learn more!
www.ewb-uiuc.org When: Wednesdays at 5:00pm Where: 110A Engineering Hall
Jennifer Bonetto
Meet your Local Brewer, Bill Morgan
On Saturday morning, I walked into the Blind Pig Brewery to find Bill Morgan in the middle of a brew. As steam poured from equipment, and the smell of malted barley filled the air, I had the opportunity to ask Bill a few questions.
With 21 years of professional experience and a founding member of the local BUZZ club, it was a little shocking to hear that Morgan wasn’t committed to beer from an early age. Even with a little influence from a cousin, it wasn’t until he unpacked a box of books, during a part time job, containing Michael Jackson’s pocket guide to beer did the relationship begin to mature. Bill describes his first mixed six pack: “I was shocked with what was hitting my taste buds.”
A fortunate happenstance led Morgan to Chief’s (now known as Joe’s Brewery) opening where he was hired on the spot as a brewer. Morgan was given the opportunity to experiment with beers and soon he was the head brewer. After making the transition to Joe’s Brewery as the head brewmaster, Morgan was always looking to expand his knowledge. Breweries were opening up across the country, and brewmasters were in high demand, so Bill headed off to the Siebel Institute in Chicago for a more formal training. It wasn’t long before he landed a job in Cleveland, Ohio, working as the head brewer Diamondback Brewery. It isn’t surprising that the man who designed the brewery from the ground up also began winning awards for beers. In 1997, he was awarded a gold medal for a sour lambic-style ale. This was the first time the Great American Beer Festival had awarded a gold medal for a sour beer.
After a few more medals, Morgan was notified of a job in Japan to run a much larger facility. When he arrived, he immediately began training the workers on laboratory work, as well as quality control on the production line. While the Japanese market was diluted with bland styles, Bill experimented with different beers, eventually landing on the wit style that became 10% of his company’s production. Even with all this success, after five years, Bill questioned whether he wanted to continue brewing at this level.
Returning to Urbana-Champaign to pursue a Master’s degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, he was contacted by Chris Knight (the owner of The Blind Pig Co. and The Blind Pig Brewery) about starting a brewery in Champaign. Since 2009, they’ve been producing rustic beers with unique flavors, no two of which will be the same.
But brewing beer isn’t the only concern for this experienced brewmaster. Morgan, a former member of Students for Environmental Concerns, says that his degree in Ecology, Ethology and Evolution made him acutely aware of reducing the breweries’ ecological footprint as much as possible. Recapturing waste heat in water that is used to cool the wort is then reused to clean equipment. Keeping other waste in mind, Morgan contacted a local farmer to help dispose of spent grains, using it for animal feed.
Also, Morgan tries to minimize the amount of cleaning chemicals that make it down the drain, picking the most innocuous to reduce effects on our waterways. Finally, Bill is very interested in sourcing materials locally, though he explained that at the amount of grain he needs, malting can be rather technical to produce a high enough quality. Even so, this brewmaster is looking forward to the future, noting that even hops may become a part of the Midwest landscape due to popular movements.
Morgan continues to strive for an atmosphere that is inviting to people. This self-titled man with “strong opinions” likes the English brewpub style that neglects having T.V.s on the wall, to facilitate conversations between people. Bill strives to get people to talk, especially about the beer. After a few sips of the natural and unfiltered beers, you may have an opinion, and Bill wants you to share it.
Stay Warm, Stay Green
The weather is getting cooler, and it’s time for some wardrobe changes to accommodate the notoriously bitter Midwest winter. A great option to stay green through the white months is reusing your jacket from last year, saving money as well as impurities that would be expelled into the environment to produce a new coat.
However, if you’re like us, it’s been years since you’ve bought a new jacket and it’s time to go shopping. If you are joining us in buying some new winter gear this season and want to spend smart, look at the labels on coats, jackets, scarves, hats and gloves and keep these buzz words in mind:
RECYCLED MATERIAL: Look for fabric that says it has been recycled. There should be a percentage that tells you how much of the fabric has been reduced and reused from other materials for you to wear and stay warm!
HEMP: Hemp is a fantastic material to look for hats and gloves in because it doesn’t have the noxious byproducts of the leading fabrics. Not only is it super warm, but it also
adds a laid back, earthy style to your other winter digs.
ECO-CERTIFIED SUEDE: Keep an eye out for “Re-Suede”. It is made of 100% recycled polyester fibers and is produced by a chemical recycling process that cuts down energy consumption and has an incredibly low carbon footprint.
INGEO: This new fiber, comparable to polyester, is raising a considerable amount of controversy but is worth considering. Ingeo is made from plastic-like pellets that are created by fermenting sugar extracted from corn. Although the final product is soft as cotton, is biodegradable, and reduces energy use, many environmentalists have resisted the Ingeo movement because it uses genetically engineered crops in its production.
The weather is getting cooler, and it’s time for some wardrobe changes to accommodate the notoriously bitter Midwest winter. A great option to stay green through the white months is reusing your jacket from last year, saving money as well as impurities that would be expelled into the environment to produce a new coat.
However, if you’re like us, it’s been years since you’ve bought a new jacket and it’s time to go shopping. If you are joining us in buying some new winter gear this season and want to spend smart, look at the labels on coats, jackets, scarves, hats and gloves and keep these buzz words in mind:
RECYCLED MATERIAL: Look for fabric that says it has been recycled. There should be a percentage that tells you how much of the fabric has been reduced and reused from other materials for you to wear and stay warm!
HEMP: Hemp is a fantastic material to look for hats and gloves in because it doesn’t have the noxious byproducts of the leading fabrics. Not only is it super warm, but it also adds a laid back, earthy style to your other winter digs.
ECO-CERTIFIED SUEDE: Keep an eye out for “Re-Suede”. It is made of 100% recycled polyester fibers and is produced by a chemical recycling process that cuts down energy consumption and has an incredibly low carbon footprint.
INGEO: This new fiber, comparable to polyester, is raising a considerable amount of controversy but is worth considering. Ingeo is made from plastic-like pellets that are created by fermenting sugar extracted from corn. Although the final product is soft as cotton, is biodegradable, and reduces energy use, many environmentalists have resisted the Ingeo movement because it uses genetically engineered crops in its production.
Megan Dawson
Green Your Holidays
Pine trees are not going to be the only things that are green this holiday season! Blend a couple of these environmental tips with your typical holiday traditions to craft a holiday season you will want to recycle for next year!
This year, instead of throwing a typical party to show off your Holiday finery, consider hosting an ugly sweater party. Have guests head to parents’ closets and second-hand stores to hunt down a tacky treasure to wear. It is a great way to reuse old clothes, and will save everyone the cost of a new outfit.
Turn down the heat! You can reduce your carbon emissions, save on your electric bill, and have a great time all in one holiday-wrapped package!
No holiday gathering can truly be deemed a party unless there are lights and decorations up. When shopping for lights, look for LED strands. They are comparable in price to traditional strands, yet last 10 times as long and use up to 80% less energy than their incandescent counterpart.
As for party beverages, “green” your holiday beer by getting a keg rather than cases of beer to reduce aluminum can waste. You can rest assured knowing that you “precycled” – reducing your waste before it is even made! And if when wrapping up those presents, use some old newspapers. Your presents will look great, and you’ll have given your old newsprint or magazines a new life.
If you plan on having a gift exchange at your party, venture out to some of the small boutiques downtown Champaign and Urbana have to offer to find gifts. Not only will you be contributing to the local economy, but you can reduce pollutants produced by long distance shipping of products, save yourself a trip to the vastly overcrowded mall, and find your friends some truly unique gifts!
Anne Logisz
Sustainability Week
From November 1st to 4th, the University of Illinois held its second annual Sustainability Week, building on a longer- standing tradition of “Live Green” week organized in prior years by Students for Environmental Concerns.
Major events held included a sustainability poster session at the ARC, a workshop on bike safety, a forum on the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), presentations on Facilities & Services sustainability processes (such as planning, building standards and utility rates) and a panel on green jobs followed by a presentation by Chris Pyke, the vice- president of research at the US Green Building Council.
At the iCAP forum, Pradeep Khanna, Director of the Office of Sustainability informed attendees that the University had achieved its 2015 goals on carbon emissions reduction and would be working to develop new, more aggressive goals.
Noted environmental lawyer Robert F Kennedy also visited campus during Sustainability Week, and spoke on leadership and transformative environmental change. At the end of his visit, Mr. Kennedy signed on in support of a student campaign to get the University of Illinois to divest from coal as part of its endowment.
Especially noteworthy was the presence of the University’s new Chancellor, Dr. Phyllis Wise, at two key Sustainability Week events. Chancellor Wise attended a campus walk featuring energy efficiency projects on Quad buildings, where representatives from the Illini Union and Facilities and Services presented many initiatives that the University was working on related to campus sustainability.
Chancellor Wise also hosted a student forum on Friday afternoon, at the University YMCA. At this forum, representatives from six different student groups presented various initiatives that they were working on to educate and engage students and make a positive impact on the environment. At the end of the event, Chancellor Wise said that she viewed student engagement on sustainability issues as one of the University of Illinois’s greatest strengths.
Kasey Umland, Program Director of the University YMCA was extremely pleased by the Chancellor’s visit. “I think it is vital that students have a voice in how their University is run. It is great to see Chancellor Wise making an effort to engage with students, particularly in a space, like the Y, where so much student activism around sustainability takes place.”
Suhail Barot
Story of Stuff: An Exclusive Interview with Annie Leonard
The Story of Stuff: one of the most successful viral environmental films of all time. Annie Leonard’s hit 20-minute webfilm has received over 13 million web views by individuals in over 200 countries, prompting her to write the book, “The Story of Stuff”. Illini Union’s One Book, One Campus program chose this book as the 2011 selection. They invited Annie to campus on Wednesday, November 14th, where she met with student leaders in the afternoon, followed by a public lecture and reception at the Illini Union.
During her lecture, Annie focused on a simple message: our industrial economy is trashing the planet, poisoning us with toxic chemicals, worsening inequity, all while making us increasingly unhappy. She argued that we need to stop viewing ourselves as only consumers and become more engaged as citizens. In a stirring call to action, she explained, “We’re using one and a half planets worth of resources. Change is coming and the only question is whether it will by design, or by disaster”.
The Green Observer had the chance to sit down with Annie for an exclusive interview.
Q: What message would you want students to take away from your work?
A: For students, this is the first generation that followed all the rules, got good grades, did not get into trouble with the law and will still graduate without a job.
So I think our focus right now needs to be on doing everything we can to get people engaged and involved again. People are forgetting how to make change. We’ve been bombarded with these messages about 10 simple things you can do for the planet. We call that the individualization of the problem. I’m all for those things, of course, but that’s just a part of being a responsible adult in society. You don’t get extra credit anymore for those.
Students should see universities as safe spaces to develop these activist and citizenship skills.
Q: Why have your new movies, like Story of Broke, dealt more with social or economic issues?
A: The goal was not to get people to watch movies, instead to get people to take that inspiration and become active and make some change.
We decided, “Lets take a risk and explore some of these deeper underlying issues that are uncomfortable to talk about”. And with anything you want to do to make things better, you will butt up against this wall of undue corporate influence, so we decided to make a film about it.
Some people wrote to me and asked, “Annie, I thought you were an environmentalist, why are you changing issues?” I said, “I’m not changing issues; we have to get the corporations out of our democracy. We’re trying to get environmentalists to think more deeply and systematically about these problems.”
We made Story of Broke because all around the world, we are told in respsonse to all these things we want, like a clean environment, healthy jobs, renewable energy, “I’m sorry. We can’t do that. We’re broke”. Meanwhile, we’re giving $10 billion in subsidies to the oil companies and $1.2 billion to Walmart. I wanted to make people aware that we are not broke. It’s our money, and it’s been hijacked.
Q: So what can we do?
A: This is an “all hands on deck” situation. Do what turns you on.
Emily Cross
Students for Environmental Concerns
Big things have been happening for SECS recently. The Beyond Coal Campaign and Sustainable Landscaping group are both quickly moving forward in their work, and SECS members had the opportunity to hear from several important speakers.
On Wednesday, November 1st, SECS switched up the routine of meetings to listen to Robert F Kennedy Jr. speak at Foellinger Hall about his work in defending natural resources against corporations. After the talk, Kennedy signed on to support the UIUC Beyond Coal Campaign to divest the campus from coal. The campaign is proud and excited to have such a prominent figure as a supporter.
The Sustainable Landscaping project has been especially busy in the past few weeks. On Wednesday, November 9th, the project group hosted a round table discussion entitled “Conservation and Restoration in the Prairie State.” A large number of students showed up to listen to local ecologists Anthony Yanarell, Steve Buck, John Marlin, and Gary Miller talk about their work at this discussion, including topics such as prairie, industrial, and woodland restoration, and the main principles related.
The following Saturday, SECS teamed up with Red Bison and took a scenic hike in Allerton Park, identifying many different species of trees and plants. In addition to the hike through the beautiful woods and prairie, the group also saw the famous statues of Allerton.
On the Beyond Coal campaign front eight students met with Deputy Comptroller Mike Bass to formally request that the university disclose how our endowment money is being invested and to encourage responsible behavior by not investing in companies heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Mr. Bass was receptive to the request for information and said he would consult with others and follow up in a December. A Responsible Investment Speak Out event occurred on Wednesday, Nov 16th on the quad to make the campaign’s demands public and to present the 2,000 petition signatures that have been gathered from students in support of responsible investment.
The other SECS project groups are also progressing well. The compost tumbler is well on its way, and more will be built. Preparations for exciting events on Earth Week have been made. Finally, weatherization has been hard at work auditing small University buildings. In early December, they will be submitting their assessments to Facilities and Services and formally presenting on their results and recommendations for improvements to those buildings in the Spring.
For more information, go to http://secs-uiuc.blogspot.com/
Tamara Liu
Food Day 2011
On October 24th, 2011 a line of over 200 people extended from inside the University YMCA all the way to the sidewalks outside. It could have been because they all wanted to learn more about sustainable methods of food production, or because they wanted to hear the guest speakers: Wes King from the Illinois Stewardship Alliance and U of I Professor Wes Jarrell. Or, it could have been because they heard about the free sustainable food. Either way, the Food Day celebration of 2011 was a huge success.
Food Day was the first of many YMCA student program collaborations, led by Students for Environmental Concerns, the Campus Vegetarian Society and the Green Observer Magazine. Food Day is a movement spearheaded by the Center for Science in the Public Interest that aims to promote “healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way”. Major goals include promoting safe and healthy foods, supporting sustainable farming, reforming farm subsidies, reducing the environmental impact of agriculture and addressing equity issues in our food system.
Ingredients for Food Day were sourced from the Urbana Farmer’s Market and the campus Sustainable Student Farm. Food preparation was handled by volunteers from the participating groups as well as members of other YMCA groups. The menu included fruit and vegetable appetizers, shish kabobs, butternut squash and sweet potato pie, all prepared by students.
The variety of delicious food, all created by locally grown produce, and the face-in-a-hole photo petitioning event all served as great accompaniments to the points made by the guest speakers. The discussion revolved around the importance of supporting local agriculture, by being a conscious consumer and asking legislators to vote for a sustainable farm bill.
The huge success of this event was the perfect example of the power of collaboration and showed how hundreds of students truly care about sustainable food.
Julie Fry, Senior in the College of Engineering, was also very happy with the turnout. “We had college kids lined up and down the block to eat vegetables,” she noted.
“I think we did something right.”
Additional information about the Food Day movement can be found at foodday.org. The event hosts plan to organize a second campus Food Day event in 2012.
Michael Chen
How Do We Recycle?
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: such is most people’s introduction to controlling their environmental impacts. US Environmental Protection Agency data from 2010 indicates that municipal solid waste generation in America has stayed flat at 250 million tons from 2005 to 2010, out of which 34% is currently recycled.
With the implementation of the first ever multi-family recycling program serving 30,000 residents of Champaign, recycling is finally available in all parts of Champaign-Urbana. Three separate programs handle recyclables in our community – “Feed the Thing” in the City of Champaign, UCYCLE in the City of Urbana and University of Illinois Recycling.
CHAMPAIGN:
Students in Champaign may have noticed the blue bins bearing the message “Feed the Thing” at their apartment buildings since last December. “The Thing” has a hefty appetite – it consumes plastic types 1-7 and other recyclables. Students need not sort their recyclables; they are sent to a high- tech facility in Indianapolis with automated sorting. Residents can pick up a free Feed the Thing tub to store their recyclable waste at the Champaign Public Works department, 702 Edgebrook Drive, Champaign.
The goal is to recycle 2,600 tons per year. The highest monthly collection was a little over 100 tons in August 2011. This rate would need to double in order to meet the goal. Angela Adams, coordinator of the Feed the Thing Recycling program, remains optimistic. “By the end of five years, we hope to achieve that goal,” Adams said.
URBANA:
On the other side of campus, Urbana has had a multi-family recycling program since 1999, but that doesn’t mean it’s out of date. The multi-family program, or U-CYCLE, serves 15,000 people and is extremely comprehensive, said Courtney Rushforth, recycling coordinator for the City of Urbana.
“We accept a lot of materials that other recycling programs don’t collect, especially plastic number 3-7, things like yogurt cups, different types of cleaning containers, plastic shopping bags and all paper type products,” Rushforth said. Many recycling programs only accept plastic types 1 and 2, which includes materials like soda bottles and milk jugs. Rushforth attributes U-CYCLE’searly birth to having cutting-edge officials. “We had a lot of support from the city council and the mayor early on with these programs. They’re very pro-environment and that’s why we could start the recycling program earlier than other communities,” Rushforth said. Like Champaign’s program, no sorting is required for residents with U-CYCLE. The recyclables are brought to Community Resource Inc. in Urbana, where they are then hand-sorted.
CAMPUS:
The third and oldest recycling program in the community, operated by Facilities and Services at the University of Illinois, started in 1989. The University does not recycle as many materials as the Champaign or Urbana programs (most notably excluding glass and many types of plastics) but still achieves an impressive waste diversion rate of over 55%, with over 5,700 tons of waste recycled in 2009-10.
The University collects recycling in three ways: through collection of pre-sorted recyclables, comingled recyclables and finally by sorting the regular waste stream for any recyclable materials still remaining. This comprehensive approach is responsible for the high diversion rate. All waste materials are sent to the Waste Transfer Station on Oak St. south of Assembly Hall where sorting takes place.
LOOKING FORWARD:
As part of the Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), the University has committed to raising its waste diversion rate to 75% by 2020 and developing a zero-waste plan. In support of these commitments, the university is conducting a food- waste composting feasibility study in support of implementing a composting program that would divert 500 additional tons of the landfill. Additionally, the campus is also preparing to launch a battery-recycling program.
A major change in waste handling practices is expected with an upcoming state-wide ban on the disposal of electronic waste (e-waste) in landfills starting January 1, 2012. At this time, all televisions, computer monitors, desktop computers as well as printers will be banned from Illinois landfills. Several businesses in both Urbana and Champaign also offer e-waste disposal programs for specific products.
In preparation for the ban, the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission has coordinated several county-wide e-waste drop off events in partnership with both city recycling programs. These drop-off events were hosted at the News- Gazette Distribution Center at the Apollo Industrial park. In response to the new landfill ban, Champaign County as a whole will look into implementing more options to residents to comply with this ban.
Be sure to keep up recycling where you live, because the programs are already in place to make a huge difference in our waste’s impact. The impact of recycling and composting programs nationally is equivalent to removing the emissions from over 36 million passenger vehicles every year. And remember, before recycling, remember to reduce and reuse first!
-Katie Durkin
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